Tamil Thalaivas held their nerves in the dying stages of the game to defeat Bengaluru Bulls 29-24 in the Southern Indian derby in Nagpur. The victory was Thalaivas’ first win of the tournament while Bengaluru Bulls, still, managed to remain at the top position on the points table.

Prapanjan stars in the first half to give Thalaivas 12-8 lead

Bengaluru Bulls won the toss and chose the court which meant Tamil Thalaivas raid first. K. Prapanjan drew the first blood for the away side in the opening raid that gave the team an early 1-0 lead, but Ajay Kumar pulled level by through a running hand touch before Vineet Kumar taking the score to 2-1 in Tamil’s favour. After a sequence of empty raids, Bulls’ skipper Rohit Kumar got into the act and managed to get two points despite Tamil trying to tackle him on the right corner. Both the teams went neck to neck as Tamil defense dashed Ajay Kumar out of the mat, but a double ankle hold by Ravinder Pahal pinned Prapanjan to the mat to level the score at 4-4. Bengaluru decided to play a defensive game to great use as they got hold of Dong Geon Lee before Rohit showcased his sublime skill to skip away from an ankle hold by Muruthu M that gave Bengaluru a 7-5 lead. That reduced Tamil team to two men as Rohit put the “frog jump” to great use to give a three-point lead for the hosts. In the next raid, though, he failed to get rid of C Arun as the Sachin Tendulkar-owned franchise reduced the lead to two points. In the final moments of the first half, Prapanjan made telling impact in the game and Lee managed a touch on Pahal to give a 12-8 lead to the Thalaivas.

Thalaivas hold their nerve to win their first game of the season

Bulls started the second half with only two men on the court but still, Harish Naik faulted in his tackle as Prapanjan kept his fantastic run on the mat to reduce Bengaluru to two men and soon Thalaivas imposed their first all-out of the game to take a lead of 16-9. Thalaivas further strengthened their position in the game when Lee came back with a successful raid point despite Bengaluru claiming they had smashed the Korean out of the mat. Bulls were in desperate search of some quick points and Ashish Kumar did exactly the same as he delivered a fantastic hand touch before skipper Rohit gaining a bonus point to reduce the difference to seven points at 19-12. Bulls defender Pahal remained successful in sending Prapanjan to warm the bench before Rohit managing three back-to-back raid points to take the score to 20-16 that reduced the Chennai-based team to one man on the court - D Pradap, who was gobbled up by Pahal in the next raid as Bengaluru inflicted the second all-out of the game as Bengaluru reduced the deficit to one point at 20-19. Bulls kept crawling back in the game with Rohit Kumar completed his “Super 10” before Prapanjan secured another point and Tamil Thalaivas extended the lead to 25-20. Lee went to the Bulls half in search of a do-or-die raid and too, managed to bring a scorpion kick at the right corner but he was collapsed by Bulls defense. The Bulls tried their best in the last moment as Rohit claimed that he managed to secure two points, but replays suggested that he was successfully dashed out that gave the debutants their first win in the league by a margin of 29-24.

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